Qinzhou Speed in Constructing the Pilot Free Trade Zone

Written by Huang Lixia / Translated by Chen Zhiying

In front of the Qinzhou port, a row of container cranes stand like giants, and the cargo ships returning from the long voyage are busy unloading. In the industrial park, workers are stepping up production in workshops. In the office building, exquisite sand table and vivid documentary narrate the development course and brilliant achievements of Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area. This area with modern features received the good news of passing the inspection of the acceptance check group on April 28, 2021.

Qinzhou Bonded Port Area is a key node in the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port, and an important platform for serving the new development pattern of dual circulation. Mo Li, Deputy Director of Nanning Customs, said: “the passing of the inspection of the Qinzhou Bonded Port Area means that the area has the conditions for operating. It is a new starting point for higher level opening and higher quality development. It is conducive to deeply integrate into international industrial chain, supply chain and value chain, and better utilize the international and domestic markets and resources as well as enhance new advantages in international competition.”

The rise of modern park

On May 29, 2008, China State Council approved the establishment of Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area, which is the only one along the southwest coast of China and the closest one between China and ASEAN.

For more than ten years, Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area has started from scratch in Beibu Gulf, overcome many difficulties such as difficult conditions and insufficient supporting facilities, and rapidly changed the situation of no land, no port, no route, no source of goods and no experience. After years of development, Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area, has become an important platform for China’s opening up and cooperation with ASEAN.

In May 2020, after the State Council approved the reduction of the planned area of Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area and decided integrate and optimize it into Qinzhou Bonded Port Area, the Management Committee of the Qinzhou Port Area went all out to promote the construction of Qinzhou Bonded Port Area in accordance with the requirements of the basic and regulatory facilities in building a bonded port area.

It is reported that the integrated and optimized Qinzhou Bonded Port Area has a planned area of 4.63 square kilometers, all within the red line of Qinzhou Port Area of China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as Qinzhou Port Area). It is an important carrier for Qinzhou City and Qinzhou Port Area to deepen opening-up and develop export-oriented economy, with a focus on the development of bonded processing, bonded logistics, bonded trade, and other industries.

Making steady progress and bearing fruitful results

The potential, advantage, and the hope of Qinzhou Port Area lie in the sea. With the goal of building the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, the area has achieved a port throughput capacity of more than 100 million tons and full coverage of major ports in China and ASEAN countries.

In 2020, the 300,000 ton oil terminal and channel and the 100,000 ton container channel in Qinzhou port, the phase 1 of Qinzhou railway container center station, the port and shipping service center of Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port, and other landmark projects were completed and put into operation, and the “last kilometer” of sea rail intermodal transport was fully opened. A batch of intelligent container yards such as the 200,000 ton container channel and terminal, and No.9 and 10 automated container berths in south Dalanping operation area have started construction. Thanks to the accelerated construction of Qinzhou Port Area and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, the cargo throughput of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port in the first quarter of this year was 82.7 million tons, up 28.5% year on year. The container throughput was 1.26 million TEUs, up 36.8% year on year. Port cargo and container throughput both ranked among the top ten in China.

At present, Qinzhou Port Area has established a strategic cooperation mechanism with seven cities in Sichuan, Chongqing and other provinces, and has opened seven normalized sea rail intermodal trains to Chongqing, Chengdu, Lanzhou, etc., becoming the main channel of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and an important hub for China-Europe Railway Express sea rail intermodal transport. In 2020, Qinzhou Port operated 4,607 sea rail intermodal trains, a year-on-year increase of 105% and sent 230,535 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 105%. The port cargo throughput was 136.5 million tons, up 14.4% year on year. The container throughput was 3.95 million TEUs, up 31% year on year.

Liang Tong, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Trade and Logistics Development of Qinzhou Port Area, said that the bonded port area will make full use of the advantages of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, connect the domestic and international markets, expand and strengthen the import of cotton and textile, grain, wood processing, bonded crude oil, bonded vehicle import, bonded cold chain transaction, and other businesses, and spare no effort to build processing and manufacturing, logistics distribution, inspection and maintenance, and sales service center, building a high-standard Qinzhou Bonded Port Area.

Since the establishment, Qinzhou Port Area has been closely centering on the position of “building an industrial agglomeration area for ocean economy”, focusing on the layout of port and shipping logistics, international trade, green chemical industry, new energy vehicles, equipment manufacturing, electronic information, biomedicine, and other industries, and initially forming a characteristic and advantageous industrial port cluster, so as to achieve high-quality industrial development.

In terms of investment promotion, in 2020, Qinzhou Port Area comprehensively promoted the “three kinds of enterprises entering Guangxi”, attracting a total of 4,242 newly-established enterprises, 4,429 newly-added enterprises (including relocated), and 41 new foreign-funded enterprises, with RMB 127.9 billion yuan of domestic registered capital and US$ 358 million of foreign registered capital, providing strong support to promote the high-quality development of the area.

The future is promising

ASEAN has become China’s largest trading partner, under the background, Qinzhou Port Area highlights the opening-up and cooperation between China and ASEAN, constantly strengthens the “Two Countries, Twin Parks’ cooperation between China and Malaysia, and supports the trade of bird’s nest, durian, palm oil and other advantageous products of Malaysia. At present, 13 Chinese and foreign bird’s nest enterprises have settled in the bird’s nest processing trade base, and 10 of them have been qualified by the General Administration of Customs, accounting for 70% of the total amount of China. After the bird’s nest processing and trade base reaches its production capacity, its annual processing capacity will reach 500 tons, with an annual output value exceeding RMB 10 billion yuan.

In fact, in addition to continuously deepening the cooperation between China and Malaysia, promoting the “Two Countries, Twin Parks”, the point-to-point financial opening and cooperation, and the transnational free trade cooperation demonstration zone, Qinzhou Port Area also actively carryies out enclave economic cooperation with the central and western regions. Strategic cooperation projects such as Sichuan-Guangxi International Production Capacity Cooperation Industrial Park and Luzhou Laojiao wine filling production project have been accelerated.

Deng Guangwen, Member of the Customs Party Committee and Deputy Director of Nanning Customs, said at the signing ceremony of the acceptance check that the integration and optimization of Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area into Qinzhou Bonded Port Area is conducive to enjoying the policy dividend of high-level and high-quality development of the bonded port areas and accelerating the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. It is hoped that Qinzhou and Qinzhou Port Area will strengthen overall planning and coordination, speed up the infrastructure construction of Dalanping wharf operation area, ensure the linkage between the area and port after the separation, further consolidate the industrial cluster, strengthen innovation, give full play to the preferential policies of the pilot free trade zone and the bonded port area, realize the development effect of “1 + 1 > 2”, and promote the integration and high-quality development of the bonded port area and the pilot free trade zone.

Looking at Qinzhou Port Area, it is full of vitality. The innovation and vitality brought by the pilot free trade zone are overflowing on the Qinzhou Port Area. “At the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Qinzhou Port Area will contribute more and better “Qinzhou plan” and “Qinzhou experience” with a higher level of opening-up and deeper reform, thus to welcome a better future.